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7 Things Most People Don't Know About Microsoft Access

Number four is the most frustrating for professional Access developers.

What Dwight Eisenhower Can Teach Us About Microsoft Access

IT departments love to hate Access. With an open mind, though, Access can play an important role in a holistic approach to in-house software development.

VBA

The vbNullChar Constant in VBA

What is the vbNullChar constant in VBA and how does it differ from vbNullString?

Form Design

Highlight the Current Control in an Access Form...Without VBA!

Let's adapt Colin Riddington's excellent no-code current control highlighting technique to work with different form background colors.

twinBASIC Weekly Update

twinBASIC Update: November 19, 2023

Highlights include an overhaul of the IntelliSense system, a project to get full paths of all running processes, and a new Kernel Mode Support Package.

Week in Review

Week in Review: November 18, 2023

Highlights include ChatGPT in Access, Test Driven Development, implementing dictation, and a new Office default font and theme.

Access 101

Access 101: INSERT INTO ("Append") Query

Discover the power of INSERT INTO queries in Microsoft Access, a vital tool that allows you to add a single record or transfer data from one table to another.

VBA

Reader Question: Do DAO Objects Need to be Closed?

Let's explore the conflicting opinions and scarce documentation on whether you need to close your recordsets and databases in Access.

VBA

Nullable Types in VBA

Ever wondered about the best ways to handle Null values in VBA? There's the ideal solution and then there's what's actually available in the language.

VBA

The Pitfalls of Implicit Boolean Conversion in VBA

VBA's implicit boolean conversions can trip up even experienced programmers. Negating the results of the Len() function is a perfect example.

Business

The Worst Way to Price Software Development Work

There are several ways to price software development work, each with its own pros and cons. But there is one option with nothing but cons.

twinBASIC Weekly Update

twinBASIC Update: November 12, 2023

Highlights include more VB6-like IntelliSense added to the debug console, upcoming help improvements, and a twinBASIC follower milestone.

Week in Review

Week in Review: November 11, 2023

Highlights include an update to the Access development priorities, a no-code way to highlight the current control, and a talk on classes and event-driven programming.

Commentary

"How Hard Can It Be?" Five of the Most Dangerous Words for Access Developers

Software projects often turn out to be much more complex than initially anticipated. Here's how to avoid getting in over your head.

Announcement

Upcoming Presentation: Streamline Your Import/Export Spec Workflow with VBA Classes

Join me online on Wednesday, December 6, for my presentation "Streamline Your Import/Export Spec Workflow with VBA Classes" to the Access Europe user group.

Intermediate

Documenting the Import-Export Specification System Tables

Documentation of the meaning and typical values that get saved to the Import-Export specification system tables: MSysIMEXSpecs and MSysIMEXColumns.

Commentary

Career Advice from Patrick McKenzie

Patrick McKenzie is the best writer on the topics of software and business that you've never heard of.

Commentary

Everything in Life is a Tradeoff

There will never be a shortage of people willing to spend other people's money.

twinBASIC Weekly Update

twinBASIC Update: November 5, 2023

Highlights include a major overhaul of twinBASIC's internals, support for "destructuring assignment", and a VBA UserForm to tB converter.

Week in Review

Week in Review: November 4, 2023

Highlights include Karl's Access News update, Access learning resources, SQL Server with geography data, and the coming death of VBScript.

Basic

Creating and Editing Import Specifications via the Wizard

For one-off text file data imports, it's hard to beat the simplicity of Microsoft Access's built-in wizard.

Code Library

UserPressed(): Break Out of a Long-Running Loop in VBA with the Escape Key

This API call captures keyboard input from the user without relying on any of the form keyboard events.

Announcement

Microsoft Announces the Death of VBScript

As seems to be their new modus operandi, Microsoft has quietly rolled a hand grenade into the VBA development world with very little fanfare.

Basic

Local vs. Linked Tables in Microsoft Access

An introduction to the differences between local and linked tables in Microsoft Access, including five situations where local tables are the better choice.

Commentary

Documenting Recurring Processes

The two-pronged approach we use to document recurring processes internally.